Night Fighting: Basic Rules for Implementing NODs in a Guerrilla Column

You’ve got your column formed- the world has taken a turn for the worse, and the baddies are inbound for a raid. Fortunately, your team has the weapons they need and you agreed on a group standard with serviceable day optics and a combat load to go with it. Right on. Time to form up that L-shaped ambush on the route of march and let slip the dogs of war.

But the challenge is STANO: Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Night Observation. The equipment is expensive and often has a waiting list of several months. This is the reality for a lot of people out there and will be in the future. Not everyone will have the high-end equipment in a ‘come as you are’ conflict. Its just one of the multitude of challenges you’re going to have to face.

The point is that you’ve got to work with what you have, not what you wish you had. Better equipment may or may not materialize as time drags on. But for the moment, you’ve only got what you’ve got. Figure it out.

Fortunately, even though you may be at an inherent disadvantage at first glance, you’re not as bad off as you think. In the Scout Course I teach the students to adapt to the situation. Not having certain pieces of gear, including NODs (night operating devices) is just one of the issues. But that being said you still have to fight. The first thing I suggest is reading over Night Movements. It was the manual written by the Imperial Japanese Army for training their forces to fight at night, and it remains one of the finest references on combat ever written.

Keep your distances between troops close. At night, the intervals between troops should be shorter so that you don’t lose sight of anyone. Movement at night is never a race. Embrace the darkness and use it as cover.

Allow your eyes 45 minutes past nautical twilight to adjust to the ambient light. The rods and cones in our eyes lengthen and we see far more than we think we do. Keep your column away from any light sources if at all possible, and if you need light, make sure it is a red lens. This is the shortest wavelength of light and lessens the impact on your eyes.

When observing, scan the terrain based on the diagram above. This allows our eyes to pick up on the shape and silhouette of people not properly camoflaged for night movements. Its the same basic techniques that we use during the day, only allowing our eyes to account for the differences in light sources.

When moving, mitigate noise and light as much as possible. The same rules that apply during the day certainly do at night as well, but even more so. The conventional wisdom has always held that sound carries further at night. In my experience I don’t think that’s exactly true so much as people are more in tune to their other senses at night to compensate for the lack of depth perception and visual acuity during reduced periods of visibility. To mitigate this, have your guys jump up and down a couple of times with their combat load. Anything that shakes, rattles or rolls gets duck tape to quiet it down. Cinch down all your loose straps. Duck tape over anything that emits light, such as your radios. Light colors actually do much better at night masking your signature as well- dark colors reflect light. And having a top with a hood masks your head and shoulders outline.

Your weapon should be fitted with a flash hider, not a compensator. Compensators are great on the range for weapons control in competition, but not so much for fighting at night. Your muzzle flash should be reduced as much as possible- because without light, those muzzle flashes become easy targets and there’s nothing you can do about it at that point. The good ol’ A2 works just fine at mitigating flash out of the 14-16in AR barrels, and the Smith Enterprises Vortex is superb for the AR-15, AR-10, M-14, and AK platforms (I’ve personally used one on each of them over the years). There’s flash cans for the AK that virtually eliminate any muzzle flash as well and if you’re running the AK, its a must-have.

Training on these points will do much to get your team where they need to be at night. Tactically, if you’ve taken all of the other steps necessary for laying in a proper ambush, you’ve going to be mostly successful. Keep in mind that a technologically superior foe will almost always do two things: become over-reliant on that technology to the point of being self-defeating, and, struggle to properly implement it at the most basic levels. With night vision devices, this becomes fighting with your gear to properly account for the difference in depth perception, which in turn leads to the users making far more noise than they naturally would. H. John Poole noted this in his book The Tiger’s Way based on tests he conducted during his time at the USMC School of Infantry. If you’ve trained with them frequently enough, its no longer a problem. But if they haven’t, locating them is easy- its where the herd of elephants are.

When implementing NODs of your own, have one set on your point man at the beginning of the column. He’ll be able to better observe both the route of march and warn the column of potential danger. Keep in mind he needs to be switched on mentally, and also that he’ll quickly get burned out over long movements.

When laying in the ambush, the most critical position to place the NODs are on the outsides of the formation. These provide the near and far side security as well as have the broadest viewing ranges of the kill zone. If you only have one set, the last man in the column should have them to make sure your patrol wasn’t followed into the ambush line. If you have two sets, they go on the outsides. If you have three, the Patrol Leader will keep a set as well when he initiates contact, and the rest fill in as you have the equipment for it.

Even if you find yourself at a technological disadvantage, you can easily make up the difference through training on the basics. Hammer home the training and always remember the fifth principle of patrolling: common sense. Even for a lack of high tech, a guerrilla column may not find itself too far behind as long as their tactics are sound. And in some cases, like my second night ambush group in the last Scout Course, their perceived disadvantage actually became their strength.

 

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About the Author: NC Scout

NC Scout is the nom de guerre of a former Infantry Scout and Sergeant in one of the Army’s best Reconnaissance Units. He has combat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He teaches a series of courses focusing on small unit skills rarely if ever taught anywhere else in the prepping and survival field, including his RTO Course which focuses on small unit communications. In his free time he is an avid hunter, bushcrafter, writer, long range shooter, prepper, amateur radio operator and Libertarian activist. He can be contacted at [email protected] or via his blog at brushbeater.wordpress.com .

24 Comments

  1. Anonymous October 1, 2020 at 05:46

    5

  2. Curious Passerby October 1, 2020 at 08:46

    When Junior arrived, you can imagine I lost a bit of freedom, so I started going hiking at night after he was asleep. Anyone in Northern VA probably knows the W&OD railroad trail. 45 miles of paved walking/biking trail leading right into Alexandria. I started hiking it at night with NODs after Junior went to bed. I would park up in the Ashburn area behind one of the many light industrial places near the Dulles airport, hike up to the trail, and go out and back a few miles. (I headed west. The eastern direction gets more built-up and there’s a lot more light from businesses adjacent to the trail.). First- no lights. I stuck to the NODs or eyesight. Second- no noise. I tried to keep it quiet. Third- no contact with others. You’re not supposed to be there at all, so don’t be seen. Occasionally, there were deer and other people on the trail at night, which added an element of surprise. With the deer, it added an element of heart attack when something would explode out of the bushes next to you to run off snorting down the trail. Some of the people were unavoidable, but often I was able to step off the trail and get in the trees before they got near. It could be so dark, I could just stand still and let them pass without revealing I was there. If you’re in the area, give it a try some night. Be careful- the cops occasionally drive the trail looking for trouble makers. With NODs you’ll know far in advance if that’s happening. There are a few road intersections, forcing you to carefully observe and avoid traffic. It helps to check the route carefully in advance and try it in daytime, as well, to get an idea of just what you’re seeing at night. It added a lot of excitement absent from regular daytime hiking. Plus, it’s a pretty trail.

    • Johnny Paratrooper October 1, 2020 at 09:44

      Haha. Great story.

  3. James October 1, 2020 at 09:00

    I believe it was Matt who suggested going out for walk every night starting with a full moon and getting used to seeing in the dark,as moon fades for me no big deal as I was adjusting to it by going out each night,will admit did it in the rain a couple of nights but were shorter walks.I will say I found this a great way to get acclimated to night and will start it again as had been awhile on the next full moon.

    • NC Scout October 1, 2020 at 09:12

      Yes!

  4. riverrider October 1, 2020 at 09:04

    i have often reached for the nvg’s when i heard a bump in the night, both at home and in the bush. almost every time i turned them off after a few minutes and used my eyes to find the problem instead. once on an ftx was wearing the nods watching the woodline for the opfor, one snuck right up beside me and asked me did i see anything. spotted the back glow on my face, went out a few yards to the flank and crept right up. scared the crap out of me. many moons ago. now i see them first, confirm with the nods.

  5. Hunter October 1, 2020 at 09:06

    Excellent summary, these are some of the lessons right out of the Scout class. Nothing drives the points home like implementing this in real time and walking into a simulated ambush with the opposition firing blanks in your direction.

    Like all of these “lessons”, practice is critical. Go for a walk in the dark without using any light. Choose a night with at least half moon to start and you will be amazed at how much you can see in the “dark”. Also an opportunity to create muscle memory of navigating your AO at night. All good practice!

  6. Johnny Paratrooper October 1, 2020 at 09:47

    IMHO sound does travel better at night. Probably because the air has less energy in it, and thus sound quality transmits better through the air. I wouldn’t say that sound travels farther, or louder, but there is def less “Static” kinda like a radio transmission.

    I recommend everyone walk around their AO at night. With nods iff possible. And test your lighting. Position your favorite light int the woods, and test how far away you can see it.

    Another trick to use is an eye patch. Preferably over your shooting eye. That is basically the poor man’s night vision. And it works really, really well.

  7. Badlands Rifleman October 1, 2020 at 10:20

    Great article! Another important point driven home during the Scout course was proper pre-combat checks and inspections and rehearsals prior to stepping. Ensuring each member of the patrol knows his job and his bosses job, with a clear cut understanding of who is in charge, is sooooo critical. Going over those “Actions On Contact” drills until the least experienced guy can explain what’s supposed to happen and why. It’s tricky in the day time and twice as hard at night, and NOD’s are no shortcut to success. As the sayings go, “shit in, shit out” and “you can’t polish a turd”. If you suck at patrolling, that’s all there is to it, no amount of gear is going to make up for it. But please do bring it anyways, so I can pick it up after that L Shaped ambush :)

    • Johnny Paratrooper October 1, 2020 at 11:21

      Yes, and may I add,

      Head counts are VERY important at night. It’s easy to get turned around, or cross over, and end up on the wrong side of your patrol with a completely different element.

  8. Quietus October 1, 2020 at 12:33

    I downloaded that 106 y.o. Japanese book that Scout linked, about night stuff. Should be good.

    There is another good book, short, one I got some years back before the internet. It may be available still. My copy was lent out and disappeared down a deep black hole.

    Title, is “The Scout” IIRC, it was put out by the Australians during the dark early days of WW2 when the threat of a Japanese invasion to their turf was a real thing. Back before MacArthur flew in to save their bacon, huh.

    Back before night vision devices, one thing I took away from that book was the scout’s use of skylining to make seeing things easier at night. The other people get more visible, if the scout can see them against the skyline.

    • NC Scout October 1, 2020 at 12:37

      YES! It was by Ian Idriess. He wrote an entire series but the Scout and the Sniper were the best. Sadly they went out of print long ago and with Paladin closing it’s doors, they’re gone.

      If you have it in PDF, or anyone does, let me know. I’ll put it back into print.

      • Johnny Paratrooper October 1, 2020 at 13:13

        Damn, Just read the quick story on him.
        What a stud.

        Book Two, The Scout, can be found for about 50 bucks online.
        Sadly his books available are a pot luck of selection.
        Also, Paladin Press should come back. I missed out on that.

      • Johnny Paratrooper October 1, 2020 at 13:22

        My College has access to all kinds of news articles, and publications and stuff by him. I have 3,000 results.

        Wait one, If I find anything interesting I will forward it too you.

      • Knowbuddy Yuno October 1, 2020 at 14:02

        Abebooks had copies of each. I spent a total of $86 to get mine just now.

        • NC Scout October 1, 2020 at 14:11

          I have physical copies. Does anyone have a pdf? If so, I’m going to put them back into print.

          One of the things I’m working on is getting old & obscure references back into circulation.

          • Johnny Paratrooper October 1, 2020 at 14:17

            Looks like you are gonna have to go to print with these.
            No PDF’s available of his Non-Fiction. But I do have access to all of his Non-Fiction.
            Which is kinda cool.
            I would purchase these in a heartbeat because they are written before the time of the new toys like NODs. Which makes them invaluable.

          • NC Scout October 1, 2020 at 14:24

            That’s one reason I put the ‘95 version of FM 7-93 into print. That, and it’s an all-around better manual. There’s gonna be more about that next week.

    • Atlas Shrug October 2, 2020 at 11:56

      I agree that “The Scout” is an excellent little book. I have a copy that I received from Paladin many years ago (no Quietus, I am not guilty of borrowing your copy ;-) ). There are many fine lessons in it.

      I would be happy to buy more from the author (“The Sniper” in particular), were they not as expensive as hen’s teeth. Any republishing would be welcome.

      I also just downloaded the linked Japanese text.

      Keep your powder dry,
      Atlas Shrug

  9. wwes October 1, 2020 at 13:26

    This site has some copies of it available:

    https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=idriess%20ion&tn=australian%20guerrilla%20scout&sortby=17&cm_sp=plpafe-_-all-_-link

    I might would be able to scan it to a PDF version if I had a physical copy. I have access to scanners that will convert to PDF. If I get may hands on a copy of it I’ll try it.

  10. Suburban Survivor October 1, 2020 at 16:31

    I routinely walk (patrol) my suburban neighborhood at night, used to do so with my Schnauzer, but had to put her down a few years ago, perfect cover for action pup, but now i just walk, observe and listen silently.

    Been here 13 year now, know the routines pretty well and have a great mental picture of my AO, which allows me to navigate w/out NV kit, but now i do carry an NVD device, gen3 pvs14-white phosphorous tube, which is amazing, compared to the MK-II Ocular Devices I used back in the mid 80’s…

    Thank you NCS for “suggesting” I obtain one while i could, and Robert at Ready Made Resources for his awesome advice and customer service. I can not recommend more highly, you won’t go wrong.

    My first real experience w night movement came during land nav phase, where i/we cherries got an education in the importance of proper night movement from the senior cadre, many of which were SF/Rangers or just plain old 11B’s in Vietnam, and they instilled in us the absolute requirement that we be able to operate at night, period.

    From movement, to bivouacking, patrolling and of course, land nav, which was the entire point of that phase.

    Most of us got pretty good w night land nav, surprising how well one can see if attuned and adjusted properly before one goes out.

    Some guys did not like being out in the boonies of Uwharrie/Pinlandia at night, it freaked em out for some reason, and as such they were overly tentative, and were late running the evolution, which meant being DQ’d…Daytime they kicked ass, ran the roads and had no issues…

    We were able to find our way to and from various way points (T-posts w/punches to prove you were there) from klicks away, simply using pace count, terrain association, and basic map reading, of course, having a kick ass Tritium lensatic compass helped too, i still carry one to this day.

    Having never used NVD’s formerly, i have an adjustment to make, from operation, to basic set up on helmet/skull cap, and of course IR laser usage. For now, just using it as a basic IR monocular is a good start.

    I still love being out in the boonies, will be doing so this weekend waaay out in WNC, as its opening weekend of the trout season here, and i’ll be primitive camping on the French Broad and stalking trout all by my lonesome…

    I’ll sit back, enjoy the sounds of nature, the rushing water and the smells that come with being out in the Tenebris, where i feel at home….

  11. Suburban Survivor October 4, 2020 at 19:06

    ok…I feel like such a voyeur…I took the time away this weekend to stroll thru the campground late at night, just using my pvs-14 handheld monocular….

    slow roll walk, stop, observe, walk,, break up gait, stop, observe, etc….

    wow, now i can walk softly, courtesy of hunting rabbits and tree rats as a youth, and then had some stalking 101 classes back in the day, but NOTHING prepared me for the level of observation/covert surveillance that using the pvs-14, white tube, conveyed.

    As long as one moves slowly and smoothly, staying behind concealment, i was able to observe folks doing all manner of shit they would not have done during daylight hours, hopefully anyway…

    I was very careful to block eyepiece back splatter light, so as not to possibly give away my pos, and if i remained still, i was undetectable..

    However, the one thing i noticed w several subjects, was they the had a sense that something was out there, but they did not venture forth..

    NVD’s, the latest ones, are a game changer….

    Yes, i stalked trout, hooked up many and netted several 24+ inchers and managed to harvest three keepers…

    I showed some kids in the campground how to dress and clean a fish, as they had never seen that….I gave one to the family to eat, suggested a recipe and this am, they all were raving about it…It was nice to convey some knowledge and skills to others…

  12. Steve October 5, 2020 at 15:55
    • NC Scout October 5, 2020 at 16:03

      This link is gold brother, thank you.

      I also have The Scout in pdf up on Brushbeater thanks to an anonymous donor.

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